1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates broadly to exercise machines.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In the field relating to sport training devices and exercise machines, the prior art is, with few exceptions, devoted to machines in which the user moves continually or repeatedly against a resisting force. But the prior art overlooks the significant advantages of combining basic mechanical technologies in a way that allows a machine to translate the exertions of the user into a controlled rhythmic motion that in turn has sufficient momentum, independently of the user""s body weight, to act back upon the user, coaxing him to assume the rhythmic pattern of motion produced by the machine.
The current invention, a rhythmic motion driver, is intended to be a basic machine unit, able to be easily employed in a large variety of ways. The invention makes possible a new method of machine-assisted exercise and recreational body movement, based upon inducing a user to maintain a rhythm with his hands, feet, or body. As an alternative to working only against a resisting force, as in most currently existing machines in this field, it becomes possible with the invention to work in resonance with a rhythmic motion.
Currently existing user-powered exercise machines tend to stop, or return to an initial position and stop, at the moment a user ceases his exertions, because the motion of the machine is resisted. Indeed, much attention in the prior art has understandably been focused upon providing a suitable means of resistance to the force exerted by the user. The work expended by the user of the machines in this field, is expended in overcoming such resistance, whether by lifting a weight, compressing or extending a spring, bending a flexible rod, turning a flywheel against a restraining force, or by moving against a pneumatic, hydraulic or electromagnetic resistance device, and it is this work that provides the essential benefit of these machines to the user, such as muscle building or aerobic training.
However, continually working against a resisting force produces an experience that is inherently motivational only for a few; it is an experience of work only, and much of the motivation is usually not the experience itself, but the desire for the perceived benefit. Whereas, a more a playful movement, such as a movement to the rhythm of dance, for example, is inherently motivational for many. Despite the fact that there is work being done, the body experiences pleasure in xe2x80x9cgoing withxe2x80x9d a movement that seems, in turn, to carry it along. The rhythmic method of machine exercise, which does in fact carry the body along to some degree in a rhythmic pattern has, therefore, a distinct motivational advantage over the all-work experience of action against a resisting force. And because the exercise experience itself is more pleasurable, the rhythmic method of machine exercise is less likely than existing machines to be abandoned by the user when the novelty of it has worn off, and is therefore likely to contribute significantly to the commercial market and to the total amount of machine exercise actually being done.
The rhythmic motion driver is a self-contained unit with the rhythmic action immediately utilizable by attaching a handle, pedal or moving structural component, to an attachment bar of the driver. This self-contained characteristic of the driver offers further considerable advantages over machines built with an elaborate specific configuration for a particular type of exercise, because employing the driver in various ways makes possible the simple construction of a wide range of exercisers. The driver, with attached handle, can be secured to a wall or doorway, for example, for use in its simplest form. In more complex forms, a suitable frame can be designed to secure the driver, or a number of drivers, in a particular position that puts the rhythmic motion along any desired path. Simple adjustable but stationary mountings on a frame, allowing the rhythmic motion driver unit to be adjusted as to position and angle, make possible custom machine configurations without re-designing the structural elements of a machine.
Further, by having a frame hold in position separate rhythmic motion drivers, each hand of a user, for example, can be compelled into a rhythmic motion independently of the other hand. A new element of machine versatility is automatically introduced by such a configuration, because a user can change the exercise being performed simply by exerting a greater effort in resonance with, or in resistance to, the rhythmic motion of one hand than he does in regard to the motion of the other hand. Acting to enhance or resist the rhythmic motion will slowly change the rhythm of the driver. The user can, for example, move gradually and seamlessly from a rhythmic pattern wherein the motions of the two hands move exactly opposite to each other, to a pattern where the two hands are moving back and forth together. A simple arrangement of multiple rhythmic motion drivers can therefore introduce significant elements of variety and change, as well as challenges of coordination, into the exercises performed.
But most notable perhaps of all the unique features of rhythmic motion machine exercise, is that more than one rhythmic motion driver can be joined together, such a combination imparting to one pedal, for instance, two independent rhythmic motions perpendicular to each other simultaneously. The result of such an arrangement is that the path of the pedal can assume a number of shapes in a single plane, such as circular or a generally elliptical figure, or, if the period of the motion in one direction is about twice as fast as in the other direction, even a figure eight pattern. In the most usual case, with a generally elliptical shape of the pedal path, appropriate exertions can cause the axes of the elliptical figure to rotate, so that the path will change gradually from an ellipse elongated horizontally to an ellipse elongated vertically and so forth. In this way, all points within a defined area of a plane are possible positions of such a pedal as it moves along one path or another, in stark contrast to any existing machine.
Many combinations are made possible by the independence of multiple rhythmic motions, but a further notable arrangement can be accomplished by joining to the two perpendicular rhythmic motions mentioned above, a third independent rhythmic motion perpendicular to each of the other two. Such an arrangement can be used to incorporate the third physical dimension into the path of a handle, for instance, so that the handle makes generally oscillating helical paths that can be varied by the user in a way that makes all points within a defined three dimensional space possible positions of the handle as it moves along one path or another. Either the two dimensional or three dimensional configurations of independent rhythmic motion thus possible allow a freedom and variability of movement of the limbs or body that is unequalled by any existing machine.